Snow plow



A. J. TORREY Dec. 26, 1961 SNOW PLOW .2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. l5, 1959 Iaweazoa* @822720323771 123242442?) y di a4@ A. 4J. TORREY Dec. 26, 1961 SNOW PLOW 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Jan. l5, 1959 a'dnevy States The present invention relates to snow plows and particularly to the trip blades thereof.

It is the usual practise, in snow plow constructions, to attach a forwardly and downwardly extending trip blade to the lower edge of the mold board. The trip blade does the work of cutting the snow and ice close to the pavement and it frequently catches on obstructions of which manhole covers and curbings are but samples. When this happens, when the plow equipped vehicle is moving at a substantial speed, the plow is often damaged and sometimes the frame of the vehicle is sprung. More often, however, the snow plow jumps and rides over the obstacle struck by its trip blade and this results in objectionable vibrations, shimmying, and chattering.

It has been proposed that the trip blades be hinged to the bottom edge of the mold board and be backed by resilient means to yieldably oppose the rearward swinging of the trip blade when it catches on an obstacle. This proposal was not effective because any rearward swinging of the trip blade entailed the lifting of the entire snow plow so that objectionable vibrations, shimmies and chattering were set up and heavy, damage-producing shocks transmitted to the vehicle.

The principal object of the present invention is to eliminate this objectionable characteristic of snow plows and, in accordance with it, this objective is attained by connecting the trip blade to the lower edge of the mold board so that it may swing from a forward approximately perpendicular operative position into a rearwardly inclined position against the resistance of resilient connections that are operative to yieldably maintain the trip blade in its operative position. The expression approximately perpendicular as used herein precludes any appreciable normal forward inclination of the trip blade but admits of slight rearward inclination thereof, said rearward inclination not to exceed 2.

In the accompanying drawings, there is shown an illustrative embodiment of the invention from which these and other of its objectives, novel features, and advantages will be readily apparent. In the drawings,

FIG. l is a top plan view of a snow plow in accordance with the invention,

FIG. 2 is a side view thereof,

FIG. 3 is a section, on an increased scale, taken approximately along the indicated lines 3 3 of FIG. 1,

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary section, on the scale of FIG. 3 taken approximately along the indicated lines 4-4 of FIG. 1 but with the trip blade swinging rearwardly,

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary view with the trip blade in its FIG. 3 position but with the hinge means deleted,

FIG. 6 is a view generally similar to FIG. 5 but with the resilient connection deleted,

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary section taken approximately along the indicated lines 7--7 of FIG. 5,

FIG. 8 is a similar section taken approximately along the indicated lines 8-8 of FIG. 6.

The snow plow shown in the drawings consists of a mold board 10 mounted on supporting structures generally indicated at 11 and having a generally indicated trip blade unit 12 attached to its lower edge.

The supporting structure 11 has a rearwardly disposed bar 13 terminating in a flat, transversely disposed wedge shaped head 14 having forwardly and inwardly inclined shoulders 15. As is fully detailed in my coatent 3,014,289 Patented Dec. 26, 1961 rice pending application filed on even date herewith, the bar 13 enters an attachment, generally indicated at 16, mounted on a motor vehicle (not shown), and its head 14 is therein securely caught by means enabling the plow to swing up and down relative thereto as it rides over the surface to be plowed or as it is'raised or lowered by the operator by means of a control.v Such a control is conventional and is shown as including a hydraulic jack 17 pivotably connected to the attachment 16 with the exposed end of its rod 18 pivotably connected to the pivoted arm 19 to which the plow is attached by the chain 20. In accordance with the invention, other means may be employed to connect snow plows, made in accordance therewith, to motor vehicles.

In accordance with the embodiment of the invention shown in the drawings, the trip blade unit 12 consists of transverse members of right angular section arranged with the edges of their walls 21 and 22, respectively, welded together in an acute angular relationship and with a brace 23 welded to forward portions thereof. A sheet steel face 24 is welded to the walls 25 and 26 of the transverse members, and a trip blade 27 is detachably locked against the front face of the wall 26 by bolts 2S.

A plurality of pairs of ears 29 are spaced lengthwise of the unit 12 and these are shown as welded to the walls 21 and 25. Each pair of ears 29 supports a pivot 30 extending through rearwardly and upwardly inclined, transversely alined slots 31 in an e'ar 32 located therebetween and welded to the under-surface of a transverse brace 33 at the bottom edge of the mold board 10.

A second series of pairs of ears 34 are welded to the Walls 21 and 22 and each pair of these receives a pivot 35 on one end of a rod 36. Each rod 36 has a flanged end 37 slidably entrant of a cylinder 33. The cylinders 38 are welded to supports 39 on the rear face of the mold board 10 and they house resilient means shown as concentric coiled springs 40 and 41 against which the anged end 37 bears and which are seated against a plate 42 adjustably backed by the screw 43 threaded through the cylinder cap 44.

In FIGS. 2, 3, 5 and 6, the trip blade 27 is shown in its lforward operative position in which it is in an approximately perpendicular position which, as has been above define-d, precludes any forward tilt relative to a horizontal plane surface and limits rearward inclination to a maximum of 2. In the operative position, the hinge means prevent further forward movement and the resilient -means resiliently oppose movement into a rearwardly and downwardly inclined position such as is illustrated by FIG. 4.

It will be noted that the pathway of the hinge pivot at all times defines an acute angle with respect to a line between the centers of the two pivots so that, if an obstacle is engaged by the trip blade, it will swing rearwardly without causing the snow plow to raise except in passing over the obstacle and without causing damaging strains on the resilient means.

What I therefore claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. ln a snow plow, a mold board, a unit including a trip blade, hinge means connecting said unit to the lower edge of said mold board for swinging movement between a forward operative position in which the blade of said unit is approximately perpendicular, and an inoperative position in which the blade of said unit is rearwardly and downwardly inclined, said hinge means comprising a series of longitudinally spaced braced ears carried iby said mold board, a series of longitudinally spaced braced ears carried by said unit, the braced ears of one series having rearwardly and upwardly inclined transverse slots, and slot entering pivots carried by the other series of braced ears, and a plurality of longitudinally spaced resilient connections between said mold board and said unit yieldably urging said trip blade forwardly into its operative position.

2. In combination, a snow plow, a mold board, a trip blade, hinge means connecting said trip blade to the lower edge of said lmold board, the pivot axis of said hinge means being movable along a rearwardly and upwardly inclined pathway between a forward operative position in which said trip blade is approximately perpendicular and an inoperative position in which said trip blade is rearwardly and downwardly inclined, and a plurality of longitudinally spaced resilient connections between said mold board and said blade yieldably urging said blade forwardly into said operative position.

3. In combination, a snow plow, a mold board, a trip blade, hinge means connecting said trip blade to the lower edge of said mold board, the pivot axis of said hinge means being movable along a rearwardly and upwardly inclined pathway between a forward yoperative position in which said trip blade is approximately perpendicular and an inoperative position in which said trip blade is rearwardly and downwardly inclined, and a plurality of longitudinally spaced resilient connections between said mold board and said blade yieldably urging said blade forwardly into said operative position, said connection comprising spring backed cylinder-piston units witheach piston being movable along a predetermined pathway and pivotally connected to said trip blade, the angle between the pathway of the pivot axis of said hinge means and the radius between both of said pivot axes being at j all times less than 90 with respect to said pathway for the pivot axis of said hinge means.

4. A cutting blade unit for attachment to the mold board of a snow plow, said unit comprising upper and lower transverse members, each of right angular section, one wall of each member being rearwardly inclined and joined to the other in an `acute angular relationship, the other walls being oppositely disposed, a cover over the outer faces of said other walls, a trip blade attached to the lower of said other walls, and longitudinally spaced braced ears welded to at least one of said angularly joined walls.

5. A cutting blade unit for attachment to the mold board of a snow plow, said unit comprising upper and lower transverse members, each of right angular section one wall of each member being rearwardly inclined and joined to the other in an acute angular relationship, the other walls being oppositely disposed, a steel cover over the outer faces of said other walls. a trip blade attached to the lower of said other Walls, and two series of longitudinally spaced braced ears, one being welded to the upper transverse member and the other being longer and Welded to both of said angularly joined walls.

6. In a snow plow, a mold board including longitudinally spaced braced ears having transversely alined hinge apertures, two sets of longitudinally spaced pivots, one set being being for said hinge apertures and extending therethrough `and spring backed means attached to the other set, and a trip blade unit comprising upper and lower transverse members, each of right angular section,

-one wall of each member being rearwardly inclined and joined to the other in an acute angular relationship, the other walls being oppositely disposed, a cover overvthe outer faces of said other walls, a trip blade attached to the lower of said other walls, and two series of longitudinally spaced braced ears Welded to at least one of said angularly joined walls, the braced ears of each series carrying respective ones of said pivots and arranged so that the trip blade has an approximately perpendicular operative position yieldably backed by said spring backed means, the'apertures for the hinge pivots being slots upwardly land rearwardly inclined relative to the plane of said trip blade.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Germany May 26, 1916 -weer r 

